Keep Calm and Insert Coin: Wasn’t That a Movie?

Video Games, what can you really say about them? Some are the best you have ever played, some are the dumbest ones you have ever played. Some have original concept ideas, and some have to take ideas that have already been executed in some other form of media. From television to comic books to movies, ideas are created in the biggest ways possible. In this case, we are talking about the movie games.

My memories of playing these are almost clear as a bell when I played them in the arcade. From Star Wars to Tron, to Terminator 2 to pretty much any and all Jurassic Park arcade and pinball machines. They are all there. But the main question is why do we play them? Keep in mind, these blogs are individual opinions and thoughts and not those of Old School Gamer Magazine.

That being said….. We play these games for a number of different reasons. We are suckers!!! If they create a new game based on the movies, we have nothing but curiosity in our minds to see if the game is any good. What is the difficulty level, or how are the graphics. Case in point is Terminator 2. When the movie came out, the game shortly was released after as a two gun game very similar to Operation Wolf. The major difference would be the graphics, sound, playability, plot, and of course how many quarters that you can pump into the machine to finish the stupid game. I say that because I remember on one day, I was able to actually finish the game but I believe I spent $22. Much to my frustration years later when you could go to a local arcade called Loco Joes, that had every games was .05. That was a sweet memory.

Does it tie in with the movie. Some times there will be games released that have absolutely nothing to do with the movie. Or, it was just a bad decision. When Street Fighter the Movie hit the theaters, even though it wasn’t a good movie at all, they insisted on creating a video game based on it. Wow, what a flopper! It’s sad to know that this was the final bow for Raul Julia and that he was attached to this movie that could of had potential. Instead it ended up like a bad scripted campy movie from the 80’s. And the game itself had bad digitized graphics, crappy control and no replay ability. There goes $60.

Now, this next part may sound extremely stupid, but it was when I was a kid. When I sitting in the cockpit version of Star Wars, I seriously felt like I WAS an x-wing pilot. It was a really cool feeling. Or even, when you stood in the vertical cabinet of Discs of Tron. The volume was so loud, when you started a game, the music and sound turned on and it literally made the hairs on my arm stand up. It’s just like playing a regular game today, such as Dance Dance Revolution. Also, the games today will actually emerge you even more into the game by putting screens around you or have response controls even stronger as you play. You want to feel like you are actually in the game. That you have been sucked in to the Grid to go up against the Master Control Program. Yes I’m talking about Tron which was a great tie in to the movie. I’ll stop geeking out about it.

Now a days, the majority of the games that come out are pretty much in Pinball form. But there is a small handful of actual video games that are still released. They are either in shooting form like Star Trek Voyager and the racing games like Fast and the Furious. These are several years old, but it is still proving my point. We like to play games that remind us of the awesome movies that we play. I am just thankful there isn’t a 50 Shades of Grey video game out there. Talk about awkward!!!!!!!!!

Brad has been a die hard arcade fan ever since he can remember. From the first time he played Space Invaders, to the first time he played Pacman, Brad has always had a love for video games. Hanging out at either the Great American Fun Factory in the mall, or spending the night in front of the glowing games at the local roller rink, he was always thinking about when he can spend the next quarter.
He also worked at Babbages, which is now GameStop, for over six years. Mostly because they had a really sweet checkout policy on new products and great discounts. But since he had the Atari 2600, he has never looked back and owned some of the greatest home machines, NES, SNES, GENESIS, Turbo Graphix 16, GameBoy, Game Gear, Lynx, Playsation 1,2,3,4 and Vita, XBOX, Gamecube, and N64...just to name a few.
Brad is also a reviewer for Mobile Beat Magazine as well as a freelance videographer, part time disc jockey, performing artist and photographer. But has a true love is for video games and Star Wars, as he is a member of the 501st Central Garrison.
His ultimate dream is to own a fully working pinball machine and arcade machine. Difficult to say which one, but a Star Wars one would be nice start.